Dries Hegger

Utrecht University | UU · Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development

Human societies face significant difficulties in the governance of environmental land-use problems. The challenges involved must be thoroughly understood to develop effective and legitimate governance of these often inherently wicked problems. However, in environmental governance literature, governance challenges have been described rather generall...

In this final chapter of the toolbox, we present two illustrative cases of participatory activities with foresight methods: one organized in an urban context in the Netherlands, and one in a rural context in Honduras. Both cases are discussed in detail following the structure of this toolbox; we start with exploring the questions of why citizen par...

This chapter is about the process of preparing participatory foresight methods (see Fig. 2.1). In Sect. 2.1 (Why citizen participation?), we discuss different goals of citizen participation in foresight activities: (I) policy development; (II) community building; and (III) knowledge and capacity building. In Sect. 2.2 (Who to involve?), we focus on...

After having prepared the participatory activity using the guiding questions of why citizen participation?, who to involve?, and which foresight methods to use? (see Chap. 2), it is time to gain an understanding of how to use foresight methods in practice. This chapter gives a step-by-step explanation about how to use exploratory scenarios (Sect. 3...

We start this first chapter of the participatory foresight toolbox with an introduction to ‘climate resilience’. We, next, argue for the importance of a climate-resilient living environment given frequent and severe climate change impacts. We then explain why citizens play a crucial role in contributing to such a climate-resilient future and we pro...

Despite adapting a mainstreaming approach to spatial adaptation, few cities actually implement it. Why this is so is disputed, as the implementation stage has been underresearched. Inspired by the “mechanism-based” strand, this paper analyses three implementation projects in the Netherlands. Mechanisms are generalisable patterns yielding more plaus...

Arguments for so‐called citizen responsibilisation, the transfer of responsibilities for public services to citizens, are increasingly put forward in several Western‐European countries. An important domain in which citizen responsibilisation is advocated is that of urban climate change adaptation. However, in practice, the advocated shift is taking...

In the literature on coastal land reclamation and ecological restoration policies, the role of policy translation has received limited attention vis-à-vis domestic political factors. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by clarifying the role of Dutch actors in developing South Korea's coastal management policies. To do so, we first develop an a...

Environmental disasters, and especially floods, are among today's biggest sustainability challenges. The number and intensity of floods are increasing, challenging current governance approaches. Governments worldwide are looking to diversify their flood risk management and adaptation strategies, among others, by increasing resident involvement in f...

Conspicuous interdisciplinary effort has been spent on addressing the consequences of climate change in a forward-looking way. The concept of solution space is a recent contribution to help decision-makers identify feasible and effective adaptation solutions and to provide guidance on when they should be implemented and by whom. Although the curren...

In the past few years, we have seen growing calls for a transformation in global food systems in response to multiple challenges, including climate change. Food systems are responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions from human activity and agricultural yields are at risk due to climate change impacts. Although many proposals have be...

There has been an upsurge in studies of flood risk governance (FRG): steering and decision‐making by public and private actors as a complement to risk assessments and technical management options. The scholarly debate is, however, highly fragmented, complicating the production of cumulative insights. To address this knowledge gap, we used six gover...

Effective science-policy engagement efforts are crucial to accelerate climate action. Such efforts should be underpinned by high-quality knowledge generation that enhances salience, credibility and legitimacy of research results. This is particularly important for the agricultural sector. Agriculture has been identified as a priority for climate ac...

All around the world, people living in urban areas experience the negative impacts of climate change in the form of extreme weather events like heatwaves, long periods of drought and pluvial floods. Global climate projections imply with much confidence that the intensity of these hazards is likely to grow in the future (Trell & van Geet 2019). Espe...

Human settlements, both urban and rural, face numerous challenges at once: adapting to the impacts of climate change, improving sustainability and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, soil subsidence, urbanisation and renewal, increasing housing demand and goals, unemployment and other economic challenges, and a need for more social cohesion. While g...

Science–policy engagement efforts to accelerate climate action in agricultural systems are key to enable the sector to contribute to climate and food security goals. However, lessons to improve science–policy engagement efforts in this context mostly come from successful efforts and are limited in terms of empirical scope. Moreover, lessons have no...

Deltas worldwide have been experiencing pressures and challenges exacerbated by climate change. An explicit focus on deltas is lacking in various bodies of literature, although present in those bodies focusing on the resilience of social-ecological systems. However, overall, literature relevant for addressing water and climate governance in deltas...

There is lively scholarly and societal debate on the need to diversify flood risk management strategies to contribute to more flood resilience. The latter requires dedicated governance strategies related to which relevant insights are currently emerging. However, more systematic theoretical and empirical insights on how to specify and implement gov...

Studies on stability and change in modes of environmental governance often remain implicit regarding the conceptualisation, nature and causes of stability and change. Moreover, they are selective in the addressed explanatory factors. Theorising of stability and change in modes of environmental governance could be brought to the next level by enhanc...

In the Netherlands land subsidence is a continuously ongoing process. Consequently, an increasing number of people and economic assets are exposed to subsidence, damage costs are soaring, and flood risk and greenhouse gas emissions are increasing. In some areas tipping points have already been reached, where current land-use can no longer be mainta...

The adoption of solar energy is lagging behind in urban areas worldwide. Although the literature on energy transition is abundant, it has been focused mostly at the systems level. Few studies have addressed on-the-ground implementation. This paper examines a specific but prominent example of such on-the-ground practice: decision-making processes in...

Cities face increasing risks due to climate change, and many cities are actively working towards increasing their climate resilience. Climate change-induced risks and interventions to reduce these risks do not only impact urban risk management systems and infrastructures, but also people’s daily lives. In order to build public support for climate a...

In the face of increasing threats from flooding, there are growing calls to strengthen and improve arrangements of flood risk governance (FRG). This endeavour requires an appreciation of the multitude of factors stabilising and driving governance dynamics. So-called catalyst flood events, policy champions and advocacy coalitions have tended to domi...

Samen met beleidsmakers, bewoners en onderzoekers is nagedacht over toekomstvisies en plannen voor de Vogelbuurt in Dordrecht, in de context van een ‘veerkrachtige Vogelbuurt in een toekomstig klimaat’. Twee visies en tijdslijnen werden ontwikkeld: ‘Hechte eilandgemeenschap’ en ‘Innovatieve verbindingen’. Ook werd nagedacht over ‘kritieke momenten’...

Recent grants of legal rights to rivers would seem to infuse traditional anthropocentric river governance with greater eco-centrism. Through a thought experiment, we scrutinize this proposition for the Rhine basin. We consider the governance implications of granting (procedural/material) rights to the river and elaborate on their implications for t...

Cambridge Core - Environmental Policy, Economics and Law - Urban Climate Politics - edited by Jeroen van der Heijden

The planning and implementation of climate adaptation measures requires the participation of citizens. The design of public participation is often determined by local government. Yet, it remains largely unclear to what extent there is deliberate design of participation efforts and which objectives are served with the designs put into practice. This...

Citizens' initiatives for climate action are actively encouraged by governments to enhance the resilience of communities to climate change. This increased responsibilisation of citizens has implications for the roles of governments. The degree of government involvement does not necessarily decline, but government roles may need to shift: from a reg...

Cities in the Global South are facing high climate vulnerabilities. Still, systematic insights in factors that stimulate or impede governance capacity are less widely available than those in the Global North. Moreover, translating relevant scientific insights into policy and practice is often problematic. Hence, there is a need for feasible interac...

Flooding is the most common of all natural disasters and accounts for large numbers of casualties and a high amount of economic damage worldwide. To be ‘flood resilient’, countries should have sufficient capacity to resist, the capacity to absorb and recover, and the capacity to transform and adapt. Based on international comparative research, we c...

Climate change impacts on agriculture have become evident, and threaten the achievement of global food security. On the other hand, the agricultural sector itself is a cause of climate change, and if actions are not taken, the sector might impede the achievement of global climate goals. Science-policy engagement efforts are crucial to ensure that s...

To address the increase in the amount of Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment in Europe (WEEE), in 2003 the European Commission issued its WEEE Directive, introducing an extended producer responsibility (EPR). While there is arguably a relationship between modes of e-waste governance and the successful handling of e-waste, the empirical evi...

Cities in the Global South are facing high climate vulnerabilities. Still, systematic insights in factors that stimulate or impede governance capacity are less widely available than those in the Global North. Moreover, translating relevant scientific insights into policy and practice is often problematic. Hence, there is a need for feasible interac...

This book points out why organisational or governance aspects are essential for implementing a broad and integrated flood risk management approach. It provides key conclusions on resilient, efficient and legitimate flood risk governance arrangements in vulnerable urban areas in Europe. These are translated into concrete recommendations and good pra...

Diversification of flood risk management strategies can be seen as a necessary but not sufficient precondition for enhancing societal resilience to floods. This chapter identifies three relevant capacities of resilience: the capacity to resist flooding, the capacity to absorb/recover when a flood event occurs and the capacity to adapt to future ris...

Diversification of Flood Risk Management Strategies (FRMSs) is debated both in research and practice. A comparative analysis and evaluation of diversification of FRMSs in Belgium, England, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden showed large inter-country differences in their approaches to diversification. In the Netherlands, Poland, France and...

Diversification of Flood Risk Management Strategies is accompanied by a diversification in rules and regulations. However, in some cases a lack of rules can be witnessed, especially in cases in which certain strategies have not yet been implemented to a significant extent. This chapter reviews several of these rules, including the Floods Directive...

The adoption of a broader portfolio of flood risk management strategies inevitably leads to involvement of more different public and private actors; different governmental levels and different sectors. This may lead to fragmentation. To remedy this, bridging processes and mechanisms are needed. The spatial planning and insurance sector are vital pl...

Flood risks in European countries are increasing due to urbanisation and the consequences of climate change. To address these increasing risks, several countries are attempting to diversify their portfolio of flood risk management strategies. Besides improvement of flood defences, the strategies of pro-active spatial planning; flood mitigation, flo...

The STAR-FLOOD project (2012–2016) was an integrated project funded by the European Commission under the FP7 programme. It carried out combined social scientific and legal studies, whereby flood risk governance in six European countries was analysed, explained and evaluated. This chapter first reflects on strengths and weaknesses of the chosen rese...

The closing article of this special issue provides a comparative analysis of flood risk governance (FRG) in four European countries and tries to explain why FRG in the Netherlands and Poland is more stable than in Belgium and France. It examines the role of mechanisms of path dependency and path change. Inspired by the conceptual framework develope...

Climate adaptation literature has hitherto devoted limited attention to the roles of residents. Yet their role is crucial in addressing non- or maladaptation, as their initiative or consent is often necessary to take adaptation measures in or around the house. To address this knowledge gap, this paper explores mainstream and additional roles for re...

Floods are challenging the resilience of societies all over the world. In many countries there are discussions on diversifying the strategies for flood risk management, which implies some sort of policy change. To understand the possibilities of such change, a thorough understanding of the forces of stability and change of underlying governance arr...

2016. Flood risk mitigation in Europe: how far away are we from the aspired forms of adaptive governance? Ecology and Society 21(4):49. https:// ABSTRACT. Flood mitigation is a strategy that is growing in importance across Europe. This growth corresponds with an increasing emphasis on the need to learn to live with floods and make space for water....

Countries all over the world face increasing flood risks because of urbanization and the effects of climate change. In Europe, flooding is the most common of all natural disasters and accounts for the largest number of casualties and highest amount of economic damage. The current scientific debate on how urban agglomerations can be made more resili...

European countries face increasing flood risks because of urbanization, increase of exposure and damage potential, and the effects of climate change. In literature and in practice, it is argued that a diversification of strategies for flood risk management (FRM), including flood risk prevention (through proactive spatial planning), flood defense, f...

In Europe increasing flood risks challenge societies to diversify their Flood Risk Management Strategies (FRMSs). Such a diversification implies that actors not only focus on flood defence, but also and simultaneously on flood risk prevention, mitigation, preparation and recovery. There is much literature on the implementation of specific strategie...

European countries, especially urban areas, face increasing flood risks due to urbanization, increase of exposure and damage potential, and the effects of climate change. In literature and in practice, it is argued that a diversification of Flood Risk Management Strategies (FRMSs) makes countries more flood resilient. The latter requires innovation...

Both in literature and in practice, it is claimed that joint knowledge production (JKP) by researchers, policy makers, and other societal actors is necessary to make science relevant for addressing climate adaptation. Although recent assessments of JKP projects have provided some arguments in favor of their societal merit, much less is known about...

Climate change creates new challenges for the global society. Responding to climate change is a complex process of societal transformations that should be studied as such. The contribution of the social sciences is crucial to the understanding of these processes of change. The growing body of knowledge on the physics of climate change, its causes a...

Facing the challenges of climate change, this project aims to analyse and to evaluate the multiple use of flood alleviation schemes with respect to social transformation in communities exposed to flood hazards in Europe. The overall goals are: (1) the identification of indicators and parameters necessary for strategies to increase societal resilien...

European urban agglomerations face increasing flood risks due to urbanization and the effects of climate change. These risks are addressed at European, national and regional policy levels. A diversification and alignment of Flood Risk Management Strategies (FRMSs) can make vulnerable urban agglomerations more resilient to flooding, but this may req...

In the domain of climate change adaptation, joint knowledge production (JKP) through intensive cooperation between scientists, policy-makers, and other actors is often proposed as a means to reconcile supply and demand for knowledge. Regional adaptation projects in the Netherlands form prominent examples of this. However, there is a lack of systema...

Because of climate change, extreme weather events and urban sprawl, urban areas have to deal with increasing flood risks. It is argued, both in literature and in practice that these risks can no longer be dealt with by focusing solely on flood defences (building dikes, dams, embankments etc.). Actors at various levels (international, European, nati...

Soms lijkt het wel of wetenschappers van Mars komen en beleidsmakers van Venus. Beleidsmakers kunnen weinig met wetenschappelijke geschriften, terwijl de wetenschapper regelmatig het hoofd schudt over de processen in beleidskringen waarin gegronde kennis ogenschijnlijk geen rol speelt. Maar soms gaan wetenschappelijke kennis en beleidsontwikkeling...

Acknowledgement This paper was prepared for the Joint Programming Initiative 'Connecting Climate Knowledge for Europe', also known as JPI Climate. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS) and the Netherlands...

Maatschappelijke problemen en beleidsopgaven laten zich niet zomaar doorgronden. Zij zijn veelal geworteld in verscheidende domeinen, er zijn meerdere waarheden, en er staan verschillende en soms tegenstrijdige belangen op het spel. Steeds vaker wordt erkend dat interactie tussen verschillende vormen van kennis nodig is om problemen het hoofd te bi...

With this Note LERU wants to advise the European Commission to include essential Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research in the Horizon 2020 programme addressing the societal challenge on climate change. The Note is one in a series of seven Notes complementing a 2012 LERU Advice Paper on the role of SSH in Horizon 2020 (LERU, 2012).

Floods are the most frequent and damaging of all types of natural disasters and annually affect the lives of millions all over the globe. Against this background, enhanced climate variability and climate change are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of floods. The situation is further complicated by the transboundary nature of water,...